The Arctic Star is not the only medal that has been disgracefully delayed

The FCO has not permitted British veterans of the Arctic convoys to receive
Russia's Ushakov medal

7:00AM GMT 28 Feb 2013

SIR – Now that the Government has recognised the bravery of the servicemen who served in the Arctic convoys with the award of the Arctic Star, will it not put the icing on the cake for the few survivors by relaxing its ban on the award of the Russian convoy (or Ushakov) medal?

This has been offered by the Russian government and accepted by Australian, New Zealand, Canadian and American veterans of this theatre of war, but the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will not permit it for quite spurious reasons.

Andrew Mortimer Watford, Hertfordshire

SIR – As the daughter of a Pathfinder Wing Commander on Lancaster bombers during the war, I stood with some pride this week at the magnificent memorial to Bomber Command in Piccadilly, financed by private subscription.

Then I saw how the Government had decided to recognise the air crews: no medal, just a clasp. I wonder whether it’s even worth bothering to claim for something that looks as if it was designed in a school competition. The injustice persists.

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SIR – In the summer of 1942, aged 14, I joined the Merchant Service. By the time I was 16, I’d taken part in two invasions and been involved in four convoy battles, including a Mediterranean Luftwaffe engagement resulting in the loss of more than 1,000 lives.

In remembrance, during the first week in May, Battle of the Atlantic Week, and the first week in September, Merchant Navy Week, I always run up the Red Ensign on my property.

George Simpson Clifton, West Yorkshire

SIR – No wonder our defence procurement procedures are in such a parlous state if a simple decision to award a well-deserved medal has taken the Ministry of Defence nearly 75 years. I take it that over the years none of the officials struggling to come to a decision ever faced the Arctic storms or flew in a bomber over Germany.

Alan Radlett Pinner, Middlesex

SIR – My father-in-law served in the Royal Navy on four Arctic convoys. Sadly he died last month, aged 90. I hope that the Royal and Merchant Navies can mobilise their resources quickly to distribute the Arctic Star medal to the 200 surviving veterans.

Charles Coulson Quarrington, Lincolnshire

SIR – Sometimes I wonder at just how stingy we can be as a nation. We national servicemen who were enlisted at 18 years of age for 4 shillings per day are left to buy our own memento of that service to wear on Remembrance Sunday.

Philip L Owens Tring, Hertfordshire

Talking to Iran

SIR – You report that Iran has moved a step closer to developing a nuclear bomb (February 27). The powerful nations of this world seem to conduct themselves following the tenets of Flavius Vegetius Renatus, a writer of the late Roman Empire, who said: “Let him who desires peace prepare for war.”

The problem with this is that one’s enemy also prepares for war and, eventually, the one with the more powerful weapons is tempted to strike before his opponent has equal power. When these weapons are as dangerous as nuclear bombs, there can be no winner.

Perhaps instead of Vegetius, the world powers, including Israel, should follow the advice of that great Israeli statesman, Moshe Dayan, who said: “If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”

Nigel Dwyer Solihull, Warwickshire

Practice vs preaching

SIR – It does not follow that anyone who aspires, and encourages others to aspire, to high moral levels must have attained perfection him or herself (“Too many priests preach truth but live a lie”, Comment, February 26). None of us lives up to our highest ideals, but this shouldn’t stop us encouraging others; how many coaches perform better than their athletes?

Denis M Fallon Hornchurch, Essex

SIR – As an individual Catholic, I am not immune to the temptations of the world, flesh and devil, and I look to the Church to guide me through the snares of this naughty world. Whether the preacher is gay, straight, married or single, is irrelevant. His duty is to tell me what the wisdom of the ages has found to be eternal, not his own particular predilection.

Cardinal O’Brien may or may not be a hypocrite, but that does not devalue what he has taught throughout his life if he has preached the Gospel through the Church.

Clive Dytor Head Master, The Oratory School Woodcote, Oxfordshire

Marvellous Matt

SIR – My son lives abroad. Whenever there is a particularly good Matt, the first one of us to see it traditionally texted the other: “Have you seen Matt???!!!”

More recently, this got abbreviated to: “HYSM???!!”.

Nowadays, just “???!!!” is sufficient to send the other person scurrying off to look at the paper or the Telegraph website.

If ever anybody deserved a gong (“Matt: 25 years of a gentle genius”, February 23), it is Matt. I am already anticipating with relish the resulting cartoon.

Michael Grayeff Harrow, Middlesex

SIR – The highlight of my year, apart from laughing at Matt cartoons, was actually speaking to Matt when he manned the phones for the last Telegraph Christmas fundraising campaign.

It is not often that one gets to speak to one’s heroes.

Ursula Benjafield Althorne, Essex

Right, said Fred

SIR – I bought my husband a satnav (“A map-reading spouse is the short cut to divorce”, February 27). On receiving it, he promptly changed the female voice to a male voice and called it Fred. He neither argues with nor questions Fred.

Wendy Rowe West Wellow, Hampshire

A doomed relationship?

SIR – How much more will America be able to kick Britain around before the “special relationship” is considered no longer to be meaningful?

America is failing to support us over the critical issue of the Falklands (report, February 26) and its government seems intent on destroying one of our greatest companies, BP, upon whose success countless British pensions depend.

Despite healthy squabbles, we have far more sincere and genuine suitors in continental Europe. Isn’t it time to end this meaningless and one-sided “relationship” with a nation that repeatedly demonstrates that it cares not a jot for us beyond a marriage of convenience?

Peter Mahaffey Cardington, Bedfordshire

Dead admirals

SIR – Not only did the French kill our admiral at Trafalgar (Letters, February 11), there is a reasonable suspicion that a few months after the battle they killed their own.

Admiral Pierre Villeneuve, the commander-in-chief of the combined French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar, was captured by the British (for the second time in his career) and given parole in England as a POW, where he attended Nelson’s funeral. After being repatriated a few months later, he took up residence in April 1806 in Rennes, where he awaited orders from the naval ministry.

On the 22nd of that month, he was found dead in bed with no fewer than six stab wounds in his chest. The official verdict was suicide, but the number of wounds gives reasonable grounds that this was his reward from Napoleon’s regime for the outcome of Trafalgar.

Graeme Boxall Shepherdswell, Kent

Bird on a wire

SIR – When my elder son was at school, he was plagued with pigeons outside the window of his room (Letters, February 27).

He found that two copper wires carrying 240 volts AC were an excellent deterrent. There were no repeat offenders.

C J Spurrier Eversley Cross, Hampshire

SIR – A couple of years ago a visitor to Lincoln Cathedral asked me what was the religious significance of the metal spikes on the ledges in the cloisters.

Derek Wellman Lincoln

A feast fit for Falstaff on Shakespeare Night

SIR – It may surprise some readers to learn that Robert Burns (Letters, February 27) was actually a fan of William Shakespeare.

The Burns family spent many hours reading his plays in the evening (although Titus Andronicus proved to be too brutal for the younger family members). Late in life, Burns bemoaned the fact that Scotland had no writer with the talent of Shakespeare to bring the history of Scotland alive on the stage.

However, it is difficult to see Shakespeare Night rivalling Burns Night. The life and works of Robert Burns have been documented in more than two thousand books and Burns clubs exist in every corner of the world; enthusiasts in Atlanta, Georgia actually meet in a replica of Burns Cottage in Alloway.

Shakespeare was undoubtedly a great playwright and wordsmith, but little is known of the man himself, or even whether or not he actually wrote the plays attributed to him. However, the ox roast and quince tarts do have a certain appeal.

G S Wilkie St Ives, Huntingdonshire

SIR – Janet Ford’s suggestion (report, February 26) that we celebrate Shakespeare’s genius with a special supper on April 23 is an excellent one. I’d like ideas for authentic puddings, please; quinces will be hard to come by at that time of year.